


Swim

by Skylark



Series: HSWC 2014 [13]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Mentions of Drowning, Mentions of asphyxiation, POV Second Person, Pining, Present Tense, Sadstuck, swimming lessons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-04-25 04:51:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4947379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark/pseuds/Skylark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feferi to you is moonrise on the water, droplets sliding on seal-smooth gray skin, silver light dissolving and breaking apart on the ocean surface.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swim

**Author's Note:**

> [original post](https://hs-worldcup.dreamwidth.org/19285.html?thread=4798549#cmt4798549).

Feferi to you is moonrise on the water, droplets sliding on seal-smooth gray skin, silver light dissolving and breaking apart on the ocean surface. Feferi is the first bite of cold against your calves, the towing resistance as you wade in deeper, deeper, your fashionable pants (a gift from Kanaya, once upon a time) rolled up to your knees. Feferi is reassuring cool pressure around your hands as they rest in hers, the tips of your claws scraping lightly against her palms.

For all that water is your birthright, you were born in caves deep underground. You've read in your schoolfeeds that you have swimming instincts, as all highbloods do, but you've never worked out the courage to test it yourself. At day you dream of drowning, of the stuffy breathlessness that you vaguely remember from the humid brooding caverns.

“Come on,” Feferi says. Her smile scatters your fear, lights you up with trembling anticipation. “Don't be afrayed! Doesn't it feel good?”

You swallow hard and take another step into the water. Now it's soaking your pants through, the ocean rising up to your thighs. “I ain't scared,” you say.

“Come on,” she urges. “The water's fine.”

She teaches you to float and coaxes you to take the breath of water through your gills. You can't imagine wanting anything else but this, Feferi's hands against your skin guarding you, the taste of salt washing you clean from the inside out. The sensation of being buoyed up, weightless. You hold her hands, learning to kick, and she pulls your wet flop of hair away from your eyes and laughs at you.

Feferi is moon and stars and water, the most lovely thing you've ever known. Over the years she teaches you the freedom of the gloaming deeps, the thrill of the hunt. Feferi is important, and she teaches you what that word means, the satisfaction of being wanted—needed.

You like it. You want more of it. You want to be as irreplaceable to her as she is to you.

 

Years later, you're experiencing a different kind of coldness—the unyielding metal at your back, the splash of your own blood on your face.

Feferi was always the leader; Feferi would swim ahead of you down to the darkest deeps, where the high pressure would stop you from following. You'd watch her grow fainter beneath your floating feet, swallowed up by the encroaching dark. 

Above you, the ceiling too is dissolving into blackness. Your vision is swallowed by black spots that grow larger by the moment. It's hard to breathe; it's hard to see. It always is, when you go down deep like this.

“Fef,” you say, your last word a whisper.


End file.
